FBI quietly drops 'law enforcement' as its primary mission

Without any fanfare, "law enforcement" has been dropped from its status as the FBI's primary mission. John Hudson reports on The Cable blog of Foreign Policy:

The FBI's creeping advance into the world of counterterrorism is nothing new. But quietly and without notice, the agency has finally decided to make it official in one of its organizational fact sheets. Instead of declaring "law enforcement" as its "primary function," as it has for years, the FBI fact sheet now lists "national security" as its chief mission.

As Hudson notes, federal agencies realize that citing "national security" seems to open the funding spigot. But don't we already have a Department of Homeland Security? The idea that the federal government is funding two rival organizations with the same mission bespeaks bureaucratic bloat, especially given the notorious tendency to keep information within the same agency rather than share it with an agency that might be a rival for funding in the future.

Hat tip: Hot Air

Without any fanfare, "law enforcement" has been dropped from its status as the FBI's primary mission. John Hudson reports on The Cable blog of Foreign Policy:

The FBI's creeping advance into the world of counterterrorism is nothing new. But quietly and without notice, the agency has finally decided to make it official in one of its organizational fact sheets. Instead of declaring "law enforcement" as its "primary function," as it has for years, the FBI fact sheet now lists "national security" as its chief mission.

As Hudson notes, federal agencies realize that citing "national security" seems to open the funding spigot. But don't we already have a Department of Homeland Security? The idea that the federal government is funding two rival organizations with the same mission bespeaks bureaucratic bloat, especially given the notorious tendency to keep information within the same agency rather than share it with an agency that might be a rival for funding in the future.